Watson’s flight delights Indian cricket fans

The hasty return of Shane Watson to Australia after he and three other players were stood down for one Test over a team breach amuses gloating Indian cricket fans.
Photo: Reuters

by
Catherine McGregor

Indian cricket fans with a sense of history were surely savouring the agonies of the Australian touring party as it scrambled to field a viable team for the rain-delayed Third Test, which finally began on Friday in Mohali.

The hasty return of
Shane Watson
to Australia after he and three other players were stood down for one Test over a team breach amuses gloating Indian fans, but it would not bemuse them. Such off-field controversies have a noble history in Indian cricket.

In his intriguing book Once Upon A Furore: Lost Pages of Indian Cricket, the acclaimed Indian scholar and cricket writer Boria Majumdar documents some of the machinations which at various times sidelined India’s finest cricketers, most notably Lala Amarnath and CK Nayudu.

The case of Armanath most closely resembles the plight of Watson, whose Test future appears to be hanging by a thread although he could yet play in the Fourth Test.

Amarnath was sent home for alleged disciplinary infractions during India’s tour of England in 1936. His relationship with his captain, the Maharajkumar of Vizianagram, better known as Vizzy, deteriorated throughout the tour.

Amarnath claimed he was being under-bowled and forced to bat too far down the order. Vizzy countered that the star all-rounder was insolent and had feigned a serious injury during the tour match at Cambridge in a fit of pique.

It culminated in Armanath being sent home by his captain and tour manager Major Jack Brittain-Jones on June 19, 1936. Sound familiar?

It must be stressed that Shane Watson was not dismissed from the Indian tour. He returned to Australia by choice to attend the birth on Thursday of his first child.

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Nonetheless, comments from Australian coach
Mickey Arthur
and performance manager
Pat Howard
suggest all is not well in the Australian camp. The captain and his talented all -rounder have apparently been at loggerheads for some time.

Watson has attracted support from numerous former Test players. Endorsements from his contemporaries have been more equivocal.

Leading Australian cricket writer Gideon Haigh has labelled the past players the ‘‘not in my day’’ faction. Their most authoritative voice is former Test captain
Ian Chappell
, who has consistently argued that Watson should be restored to his preferred position opening the batting at the expense of incumbent
Ed Cowan
.

Chappell possesses one of the most astute brains in Australian cricket. But some of Watson’s other backers seem to be relying on the insider argument that only those with appreciable Test experience have the right to hold high office in Australian cricket.

“I wonder how many Tests Pat Howard played in India?’’ queried former Test batsman
Damien Martyn
. This drew an amusing response from cricket blogger and film-maker Jarrod Kimber, who said Martyn’s current occupation was ‘‘mosquito repellent entrepreneur", a calling he pursued unencumbered by experience as ‘‘either a mosquito or candle’’.

Paradoxically, Watson seems an unlikely poster boy for those, like Warne who idealise the bygone Chappell era when men were men. Watson is the very epitome of the modern, pampered professional cricketer. Indeed, he thrives on the ministrations of those dismissed as ‘‘muppets’’ by Warnie – the host of support staff, managers, psychologists and personal trainers with no professional cricketing experience.

Such apparent contradictions suggest that Watson may merely be a useful lever for the old guard against Arthur, Howard and Cricket Australia chairman of selectors John Inverarity.

The harsh truth is that Watson’s case to open the innings, or to be considered a specialist batsman anywhere in the order, is not compelling. His figures are those of a capable if not brilliant all-rounder, averaging 36.02 with the bat and his 62 Test wickets have cost 30.06 eash.

His physical fragility, which restricts his bowling, hardly makes him an automatic selection.

Amarnath achieved the ultimate vindication, going on to captain his country and being voted one of India’s top players of the 20th century.